Israeli military occupation 'severely compromises Bethlehem'

The Israeli military occupation around Bethlehem is severely restricting its growth, undermining its economy and compromising its future, according to a UN report.

The combined effect of Israeli annexation, the West Bank barrier, settlements, settler bypass roads, closed military zones and Israeli nature reserves, has left only 13% of the 660 sq km Bethlehem governorate available for Palestinian use, the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs says.

While there are about 175,000 Palestinians living in the Bethlehem area, there are now at least 86,000 Israelis also living there in 19 settlements, and their number is growing, even though settlements on occupied land are illegal under international law. Two-thirds of the governorate is under full Israeli security and administrative control.

The barrier around the Bethlehem area, part concrete, part steel, is still being built, but when finished will seal off the city itself from east Jerusalem and prevent growth to the north and west. On the western side of the barrier about 64 sq km will be isolated, home to 21,000 Palestinians living in some of the most fertile agricultural land in the area. The Palestinians there will face reduced access to trading markets and health and education services.

The UN, however, said there was still time to prevent further deterioration and that some of the Israeli's measures were reversible. Israel could halt construction of the rest of the barrier, open up military zones and nature reserves for Palestinian development, and freeze settlement activity, it said. A stop on all settlement activity forms part of the US road map for peace, which is the framework for peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. "These types of immediate steps would contribute to ensuring compliance with international law and UN resolutions and lay the groundwork for a durable political solution in the occupied Palestinian territory," the UN said.

In Nu'man, one of the villages the UN says is "living in limbo", the situation is particularly dire. The village is surrounded on three sides by Israel's West Bank barrier and on another by the Israeli settlement of Har Homa. The village entrance is blocked by an Israeli checkpoint to anyone other than Nu'man residents. Permits are not given for new homes in the village, and the younger generation is being forced out. Israel annexed Nu'man to Jerusalem after the 1967 war, but never gave its people Jerusalem residency.

"It's a tragedy," said Ibrahim Darawi, 61, a Nu'man resident, who teaches geography at al-Quds University. "The old will die and the young will leave."

Israel's hardline foreign minister, ­Avigdor Lieberman, lives in Nokdim, one of the Jewish settlements in the Beth­lehem area, some way to the east of Israel's barrier.